CBCP stands firm against death penalty

“The Gospel of the Lord Jesus is the Gospel of Life. It is this Gospel we must preach. It is this Gospel that we must uphold.”

These are the opening lines of the statement of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference government's intent to re-implement death penalty as capital punishment in the country.

The statement was released after their three-day plenary assembly held in Manila.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas, CBCP President stated that everyone has the right to live and anyone who has sinned is always given a chance to change for good.

“We regret that there are strident efforts to restore the death penalty. Though the crime be heinous, no person is ever beyond redemption, and we have no right ever giving up on any person,” he said.

“When we condemn violence, we cannot ourselves be its perpetrators, and when we decry murder, we cannot ourselves participate in murder, no matter that it may be accompanied by the trappings of judicial and legal process.”

Archbishop Villegas also stressed that, “Throughout the world, the trend against the death penalty is unmistakable, and international covenants, one of which the Philippines is party to, obligate us not to impose the death penalty,”

At the end of the statement, Villegas urged the government “to champion life for all.”